Werner

Just got my CDL. I've put out over 300 applications to numerous companies and got no response from any of them. They all want experienced drivers, but no one is willing to be the first to let you get experience. I paid for my own training so I wouldn't be locked into a company and owing them money, Guess this is what I get for working hard and doing things on my own.

tony wrote:

Dont do it WERNER is nothing more but a big fat blue ballon, that will bust as soon as u get comfordable. log system sucks, all this time seting it up and thay still dont have it right, the pepole
running it have no clue what the f**k thay r doing. i drove for them 100 percent on time, helping out as mutch as i can, and when my turn came to ask for somethong that was well derserved,
i got old, o well sorry. but this, but that, but the other thing,
hay! you make your own choice, just think u should look a little harded, thees BIG RIG company's dont GIVE! A! S**T!! about u, me, or the next guy....

Can you even spell? are you an inbred redneck from Arkansas? Good Grief man!

I drive for Werner. I was a trainer up until June, when they started reducing my pay, putting the money into a "bonus" (read "security deposit") which is only paid back to you after the rookie completes six months without an accident.

I agree that many of Werner's trainers have little experience. I refused to train until I had two years running nationally and even then I was hesitant because there was still so much to learn but I had enough basic knowledge that I felt I could share with the new guy. I like to think I was one of the better trainers as I would do whatever it took to teach the student whatever skill he needed help on. Even to the point of taking my home time to fire up the truck, hooking a trailer and practicing backing until they got it down. But I was an anomaly.

Werner has a lot of problems. I can attest that the electronic log is fraught through with bugs. Most of them dock you time. A few give you time, too. I take advantage of the loopholes whenever it is convenient for me to do so. I rarely do log changes, even when the log is wrong. I just leave it alone unless the line 4 time is cutting into my drive time.

Yes, I get stuck without loads from time to time. Doing that right now, stuck along the Mexican border without a load home; I will be two days late because of this. Assuming I get a load tomorrow. I try to avoid areas that have low freight, such as Chicago, West Branch, IA, McAllen, TX, Florida in general etc. The trick is to start pinging your dispatcher a day or two early, make friends with them, not enemies. A little respect goes a long way. Even if they don't deserve it.

I don't know how much good I can say about the Werner maintenance dept, Gra-Gar. Rarely have I had anything like a "good" experience with them. They are a training outfit, and they work for less than ten bucks an hour, which is why Werner uses them. I've had them do more damage to my truck than they fixed. Some of the mechanics have been ex-cons and more than one has been caught stealing from the drivers. One was caught pawing through a female's underwear! I guess I can say that Werner doesn't tolerate this behavior from anyone and fires and prosecutes anyone caught stealing, be they driver or mechanic.

My biggest problem right now is that I was a 48 state driver. Werner moved me to their lowest-paying board, the Western 11, without even telling me. My dispatcher did both so I never knew until he quit and my new dispatcher told me I had been on W-11 for over six weeks already. No wonder my wife has been complaining about the low paychecks!

They have been running me as a 48 state driver, all over the US that is, but paying me as a W-11 driver. So I went from 30 cents per mile empty or loaded to 15 cents empty and 21-36 loaded, depending on the length of the haul. And it always seems to be over 400 miles haul which pays the least...21 cents. This is a 33% pay cut from my point of view. I can't afford that! I have a family to support!

I have an application in at Tyson; I should hear next week if they accept me or not. If they do, I'm SO gone! It will be a real pleasure to be paid more than a pittance for the work I do, get good benefits and not be such a number. My wife hopes so, too. She has expensive tastes!

This is f'ed. The only thing on here is the wrong way to do it.

Go to work for Mc Donalds. Save yourself the agravation.

Roehl. Sucks don't get miles 400 a week

Scott White wrote:

Was wondering if any one can tell me if SWIFT TRANS is a good company to work for or not, I am lookin to get into trucking,but I want to work for a company that will treat me good

Swift is a little cheap but they will have a new load waiting for you as soon as you finish your offload. Never wait for a load. they will pay you $35 to unload a trailer that they would pay a lumper $150 for the same offload but you don't have to do it if you don't want to. They have terminals all over the country, free showers and shops to work on your truck if you need it. They also have their own school and will prehire you. I would go with Swift for the first 6-12 months until you get that experience and then you can go wherever you want. Bounce around until you find the right company.

Werner Driver wrote:

I would avoid Werner, I have been with them 2 months and have never learned to hate a job or company as fast as I have this one. I have no one to compare them to though so do not know that they are worse than any other big company.
My trainers were actually pretty good and training was not bad. My problems have been with being on my own.
Dispatch does not care about you as they know they have hundreds of new recruits waiting to take your place every week. I work 70 hours in 5 days to get 1700 miles. Of course I spend a lot of this time logged on line 1 as I am just sitting somewhere, but it is not home or anyplace I consider time off so I call it work. This is usually because of poor scheduling or load planning (I really cannot believe they pay people to plan so poorly). I have many trips that are under 300 miles, but due to scheduling cannot be completed in a 14 hour day. All dispatch has to say is that this happens sometimes. Yes sometimes I can see this, but 3 days a week? This is crazy.
I have talked to several drivers for the company in my trainig and on my own and I would have to say it runs about 70% who are not happy to 30% that are. You can put me in the 70% group.

I agree I've been with Werner for about 9 months and they screw me on miles all the time and the planners are idiots

Small trucking companies are much better than big ones.big companies have many regulations, wild dispach,leave you on the road for months,don't pay good,they fire drivers for no reasons sometimes........etc. I am a truck driver and I worked for werner,I better work for McDonald's than working for them again.small companies are the best.

Werner pays there Canadian drivers 10$ everytime they cross the border..iam a u.s. driver who crosses the border over 20 times a week..I drive for Werner aswell but iam American ..Werner doesn't care..I get jacksquat..way to take care of you're American drivers Werner ..._